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Influence Actions
In addition to the actions listed on the Influence charts in the various Mind’s Eye Theatre source books, characters may perform the additional actions listed here. It is important to note that Influence can generally only affect other Influences of the same type. A character can use his Influence (Street) to aggress another player’s Influence (Street), but he would have a hard time getting it to interact with a player’s Influence (High Society) successfully. Endeavors Attack: 'You can Attack another’s Influence with your own, provided you have previously Traced the target Influence. To Attack, you assign a number of Influence Traits, and that number becomes the level of the Attack endeavor. If the level exceeds the victim’s Influence level, the victim drops a level of her Influence at the end of the month. Traits banked for Growth are lost as well, even if they would have given the victim a new, higher level Influence at the beginning of the next month. 'Block: You can use your Influence to prevent Influence endeavors from taking place for that month. Any action from the other sourcebooks may be blocked, provided that your Influence level is at least equal to the endeavor’s level on the chart. The Block’s effective level is the total number actions spent toward it. A Block will affect all attempts at the selected endeavor during that month; anyone attempting the Blocked action in the city will not succeed unless they have added enough levels of Boost to the endeavor. Multiple Blocks against the same endeavor type are not cumulative in effect. If more than one Block is put in place on the same endeavor, use only the highest level when calculating the success of those attempting the endeavor. Boost: Boost is simply a term used to describe spending additional unneeded Influence Traits to perform an endeavor, just in case someone has put up a Block that needs to be overcome. If the Traits spent into Boost equal the level of the Block, the action is successful. The Block does not go away if one action beats it, though. It can still be effective against any additional attempts at that endeavor in that month. Combine: 'Combine allows you to aid the Influence endeavor of another character. No action on the Mind’s Eye Theatre sourcebook charts can be attempted by a character who doesn’t have the required Influence level according to that chart. For every two Traits that you spend on Combine, the character you are helping gains one action to use toward his endeavor. Influence borrowed through the Mentor Background is also subject to this rule. A character can spend no more than 20 Traits toward a single endeavor in any given month, including all actions spent for modifications such as Combine. 'Conceal: Conceal can be used to hide your Influence from uses of Trace. The number of actions spent toward Conceal generates that month’s Conceal level, which you pit against attempts to Trace it. Defend: You use the Defend endeavor when you fear that someone is going to Attack your Influence. To employ this special endeavor, assign a number of Traits as the level of the defense. The level of any Attacks directed at that Influence must exceed the Defend level plus the level of your Influence in order to be successful. Follow: If you want to keep an eye on what someone is doing with his Influence, you can attempt to Follow them with your own. Follow is similar to Watch, except that it only keeps a lookout for actions performed by a single person's Influence. To Follow someone’s Influence, you must have a successful Trace on it already. To use Follow, assign a number of Traits to establish the level of the endeavor. The Follow endeavor will reveal all activities performed by the targeted Influence, less any activities hidden with an equal or higher level of Stealth. Growth: 'To raise one of your Influences to the next level, you must spend a number of Traits equal to three times your current level. In general, you can gain a new level in an Influence once every three months, provided you are using your Influence for nothing else. Unlike other endeavors, Traits spent for Growth can be banked from month to month. When you bank Traits thus, they accumulate until you reach the number required for an increase. If you meet the number of Traits required to increase to the next level, the Influence level improves by one at the end of the month. 'Stealth: 'Stealth is added to endeavors to counter the use of Follow and Watch. If the number of Traits spent to add Stealth to an endeavor equals or exceeds the level of the Follow or Watch, the endeavor is remains undetected. Stealth can be applied to any of the actions on the charts, as well as to Attack, Block, Follow, Growth, or Watch. 'Trace: You can use this endeavor to establish the identity of a character whose Influence you have come into contact with. You cannot simply guess that a character has an Influence in a particular category and then attempt to Trace it. You must first have come into contact with it in one of the several ways. This can be accomplished by suffering an Attack from the target’s Influence, by noticing one of the target’s endeavors with the use of Watch, by stopping one of the target’s endeavors with a Block, or by having one your own endeavors stopped by the target’s use of Block. Additionally, if someone ever loans you Influence Traits with Combine, you can Trace them. Finally, if the target ever tells you in great detail about his Influence (i.e., agrees to let you Trace it), you can perform the Trace. The total actions spent on the Trace define its level. If the level of this Trace exceeds the highest level of Conceal or Stealth put up to guard the Influence that month, the Trace is successful. Success tells you the Influence owner’s identity, and whether their Influence level is higher than your own or not. It also gives you a general description of the Influence and the ability to spend Traits to Attack it. Using Trace is specific to one city. Therefore, if a character has Influence of the same type in more than one city, your Trace only tells you about the Influence in the city you are searching. If you have succeeded in a Trace on an Influence, you may not simply relay that information to someone else for his or her Influence to make an Attack on. The information is too complex for them to relay to their own Influence contacts without them actually performing a Trace themselves. If you have performed a successful Trace, you can relay enough information for someone else to perform a Trace with his or her own Influence. Watch: You use Watch when you want to notice a certain Influence action in a city from the chart listed in the sourcebooks. Your Influence must be of sufficient level to perform that action before you can Watch it. A Watch will let you know when and how often the action is attempted in the city for that month, and you will even discover uses of the action that occurred earlier in the same month before the Watch was instituted. The total number of Traits spent on the Watch define its level. You can also use Watch to look for the following endeavors: Attack, Block, Follow (only those targeted at you), Growth, and Watch. Contacts and Allies Contacts can only do the following Endeavors: Follow, Trace and Watch. Allies can do all Endeavors except: Combine and Growth. Category:Influences